As we work to bring even more value to our audience, we’ve made important changes for those who receive Ad Age with our compliments. As of November 15, 2016 we will no longer be offering full digital access to AdAge.com. However, we will continue to send you our industry-leading print issues focused on providing you with what you need to know to succeed.

If you’d like to continue your unlimited access to AdAge.com, we invite you to become a paid subscriber. Get the news, insights and tools that help you stay on top of what’s next.

Who's Who in Business Publishing

Published on November 14, 2005.

Most Popular

Frank Anton
What: CEO
Where: Hanley Wood
Why: Anton, former president of Hanley Wood, succeeded Mike Wood as CEO
after an investment group led by JPMorgan Partners purchased the construction media company from Veronis Suhler Stevenson for $650 million. The deal was the second largest involving the sale of a business media company.

Joe Berkery
What: CEO
Where: Berkery, Noyes & Co.
Why: Berkery is a co-founder of Berkery, Noyes & Co., a communications investment bank. The firm has stepped up its b-to-b deal-making efforts, in part by hiring Joel Novak and Kathleen Thomas as managing directors. It recently represented Adams Business Media in the sale of its futures and research groups to Highline Media, and Boucher Communications in its sale to Wolters Kluwer Health.

Mary Berner
What: President-CEO
Where: Fairchild Publications
Why: Fairchild was considered a b-to-b publishing backwater before Berner took charge in 2000, following Advance Publications’ purchase of the company from Walt Disney Co. Since then, the former consumer magazine marketing maven with Glamour and TV Guide has dramatically redefined Fairchild as a major b-to-b player.

Jim Berrien
What: President-publisher
Where: Forbes Magazine Group
Why: In addition to expanding Forbes’ conference offerings, Berrien has been working with Forbes FYI VP-Publisher Jack Lashever to attract more lifestyle advertising and reduce the group’s reliance on financial and technology advertisers.

Robert Biolchini
What: President-CEO
Where: PennWell Corp.
Why: Under Biolchini’s leadership, the publisher of Oil & Gas Journal and Power Engineering has been growing its online revenue between 15% and 20% a year and expects an even bigger gain this year. The company in September acquired Paperloop’s Converting Machinery and Materials International conference business.

Cameron Bishop
What: President-CEO
Where: Ascend Media
Why: Bishop, who once ran Primedia’s business publishing unit, now controls a b-to-b media company with $150 million in revenue. The startup company has grown rapidly through its acquisitions of Medical World Communications, SynerMed Communications and Exhibitor Visibility Worldwide.

Ty Bobit
What: Chairman-CEO
Where: Bobit Business Media
Why: Bobit has grown his namesake company through strategic acquisitions that dovetail with its automotive, automotive aftermarket, ground transportation, protection and beauty portfolios. Last year it added Campus Safety Journal and the Campus Safety Conference.

Shelby Bonnie
What: CEO
Where: CNET Networks
Why: Bonnie remains on the online frontier. He’s now focused on making broadband video a core part of CNET’s brands and services. The effort started with “The Whiteboard Video,” so named because each segment features an executive in a natural setting using a whiteboard to explain a business concept or demonstrate a technique.

Ned Borowsky
What: President-CEO
Where: North American Publishing Co.
Why: Borowsky has spent 22 years at North American Publishing, whose magazines cover the print and packaging, direct marketing, promotional and publishing markets. The company recently announced plans to launch Home Furnishings Business .

John M. Cappelletti
What: President-CEO
Why: Putman Media
Why: In the last 30 years, the Cappelletti family has grown Putman into a multimedia business while maintaining the advantages of being an independent company. Putman expects to log nearly $18 million in sales this year from the eight markets it serves.

Jim Casella
What: CEO
Where: Reed Business Information
Why: Casella is overseeing the geographic expansion of Reed’s strongest brands, such as Variety’s publishing venture in China. He’s also focusing on growing online revenue, which this year is expected to account for nearly 20% of the company’s overall revenue.

Bart Catalane
What: COO
Where: Ziff Davis Media
Why: With many of the tech publisher’s top lieutenants reporting directly to Catalane, his role as Robert Callahan’s right-hand man cannot be underestimated in Ziff Davis’ dramatic turnaround from just a few years ago.

William Cobert
What: President-CEO
Where: Canon Communications
Why: It’s time for Cobert to roll up his sleeves following Veronis Suhler Stevenson’s $200 million sale of medical publisher Canon to Apprise Media, a company backed by Spectrum Equity Investors. The sale, for a reported 12 times EBITDA, may have been the peak of b-to-b deals this year.

Mark Colodny
What: Managing director
Where: Warburg Pincus
Why: Colodny established himself in the b-to-b media world as a mergers and acquisitions executive with Primedia. At Warburg Pincus, he remains involved in b-to-b media in many ways, including as a member of GlobalSpec’s board of directors.

Keith Crain
What: Chairman
Where: Crain Communications Inc.
Why: The younger son of company founder G.D. Crain Jr., Keith Crain has continued to build the company through launches, such as Automobilwoche, and acquisitions, including Workforce Management and Crain’s Mexico. He is perhaps best known as publisher-editor in chief of Automotive News.

Rance Crain
What: President
Where: Crain Communications Inc.
Why: The elder son of G.D. Crain Jr. has carried on the founder’s emphasis on editorial quality. He is most visible as editor in chief of Advertising Age, where he regularly admonishes the media, marketers and advertising agencies, asking for better performance from all three.

Robert Crosland
What: Managing director
Where: AdMedia Partners
Why: A former executive at Ziff-Davis and McGraw-Hill Cos., Crosland is known for not mincing words. His recent deals for AdMedia Partners include the acquisition of Retail Systems Alert Group and Retail Systems Europe for Proximus B2B.

L. Gordon Crovitz
What: President
Where: Dow Jones Electronic Publishing
Why: Crovitz presides over an impressive operation that this year added MarketWatch to bolster its presence in online video news. WSJ Online remains one of the most successful paid news sites, with circulation up 9% this year to 764,000.

Roland DeSilva
What: Managing partner
Where: DeSilva & Phillips
Why: Media investment bank DeSilva & Phillips has played a role in several key b-to-b media transactions this year, including the sale of Hanley Wood to an investment group headed by JPMorgan Partners, and Lebhar-Friedman’s acquisition of Dowden Health Media.

Alan Douglas
What: President
Where: Douglas Publications
Why: Last year, Douglas, along with former B2B Works senior executive Bill Walker, formed the Integrated Media Consortium, a purchasing cooperative designed to cut costs for small publishing companies.

Carroll Dowden
What: President
Where: Dowden Health Media (Lebhar-Friedman)
Why: With the acquisition of Dowden Health Media by Lebhar-Friedman earlier this year, Dowden will be leading the charge to diversify Lebhar-Friedman, best known for its flagship Nation’s Restaurant News, into key health markets.

Tom Drouillard
What: President-CEO
Where: SRDS
Why: Drouillard oversees a database of rates and other data from more than 100,000 U.S. and international media properties. The database verifies each listing up to 20 times per year and makes more than 21,000 listing updates every month.

Rae Evans
What: Founder
Where: Evans Capital Group
Why: Evans is a key lobbyist for American Business Media. Her focus in recent years has been postal reform and its potential impact on magazine publishers. Her efforts contributed to President Bush’s establishment of a commission on postal reform in 2002.

Olivier Fleurot
What: CEO
Where: Financial Times
Why: Some commentators dismissed the 1998 launch of the U.S. version of the Financial Times, saying it couldn’t hold its own against The Wall Street Journal. Instead, it became a major influencer on the global financial scene.

John French
What: President-CEO
Where: PBI Media Holdings
Why: French took over the former Primedia Business Magazines & Media unit after its purchase by Wasserstein & Co. He was exec VP of the unit at the time it was put in play last summer.

Robert Garrett
What: Founder-managing director
Where: AdMedia Partners
Why: Garrett’s background is in corporate finance with Smith Barney and Security Capital Corp. Earlier this year, his firm handled Gruner+Jahr’s sale of Inc. and Fast Company to Mansueto Ventures and the sale of Dynamic Logic to Millward Brown.

Peter Goldstone
Why: President-magazine division
Where: Hanley Wood
Why: Following the acquisition of Hanley Wood by an investment group led by JPMorgan Partners, Goldstone can now go full speed ahead with efforts to grow the publisher’s residential construction base.

Andrew Goodenough
What: President-CEO
Where: Highline Media
Why: It’s been a pretty active year for Goodenough and Highline. In May, the company introduced Advising Boomers for financial advisers and in September acquired Wealth Manager from Bloomberg.

Rex Hammock
What: President
Where: Hammock Publishing
Why: Hammock Publishing was one of the early adopters of Google’s AdWorks program, seeing it as a surefire way to generate online revenue for niche publishers. Hammock himself has one of the edgiest blogs in the b-to-b publishing orbit.

Glenn Hansen
What: President-CEO
Where: BPA Worldwide
Why: Hansen has his hands full these days, with a series of recent changes in BPA auditing practices. These include a new sponsored reporting breakout on the first page of the circulation report and the exclusion of subscription agents as sponsors.

Don Hawk
What: President
Where: TechTarget
Why: Hawk, along with CEO Greg Strakosch, has developed niche Web sites such as searchsecurity.com and search400.com. The company has also created live events as well as print magazines, including CIO Decisions, and is now making a big push in Asia.

George R. Hearst Jr.
What: Chairman
Where: Hearst Corp.
Why: The grandson of company founder William Randolph Hearst oversees Hearst Business Media. The group has more than 20 titles, with a significant presence in the automotive, electronics and medical/pharmaceutical markets.

Peter Hoyt
What: President
Where: Hoyt Publishing
Why: Hoyt demonstrated his iconoclastic approach to b-to-b media in the creation last year of the In-Store Marketing Institute. With this for-profit association, Hoyt’s niche publishing company is taking on an established industry association, Point-of-Purchase Advertising International.

Gordon T. Hughes II
What: President-CEO
Where: American Business Media
Why: Hughes has guided ABM through a turbulent period in the b-to-b publishing industry. He has been especially vocal in encouraging members to look for new revenue streams online and in rich data. Next year, Hughes will preside over ABM’s multi-event centennial celebration.

Britton Jones
What: President-CEO
Where: Business Journals
Why: Business Journals’events business is going gangbusters, with revenue expected to grow 58% this year through the strength of the company’s fashion shows. Jones, who is chairman of ABM’s trade show council, is still a big believer in print, with revenue from the company’s print properties projected to grow 10% in 2005.

Wilma Jordan
What: CEO
Where: Jordan, Edmiston Group
Why: Jordan, Edmiston has enjoyed a strong year, participating in 17 business information and business media deals thus far. These include some with the highest profiles in the industry, such as the sale of Ad:Tech to DMG Media.

Norman Kamikow
What: President-editor in chief
Where: MediaTec Publishing
Why: Kamikow, whose company publishes Certification Magazine, Chief Learning Officer and Workforce Performance Solutions, is a big believer in events. With revenue in that area trending upward, he expects his company to expand its number of events in 2006.

Peter Kann
What: Chairman-CEO
Where: Dow Jones & Co.
Why: Kann, who joined Dow Jones in 1963, spearheaded the recent launch of the Saturday edition of The Wall Street Journal in the biggest effort yet to expand its ad base beyond the financial and technology sectors to more lifestyle marketers. After covering the Vietnam War for the Journal, he helped launch The Asian Wall Street Journal in 1976.

Thomas Kemp
What: Managing director
Where: Veronis Suhler Stevenson
Why: The management teams at Veronis Suhler Stevenson properties Ascend Media and Access Intelligence can tap into Kemp’s long experience in business publishing. He joined the investment bank after serving as chairman-CEO of Penton Media.

Patrick Kenealy
What: CEO
Where: IDG
Why: Kenealy, one of the b-to-b publishing industry’s biggest boosters for vertical search engines, has informally proposed that media companies join together to form a search-oriented portal that would charge for access in a manner similar to cable operators charging for access to HBO and Lifetime.

William Kerr
What: Chairman-CEO
Where: Meredith Corp.
Why: Kerr engineered one of the biggest publishing deals this year when Meredith bought Gruner+Jahr USA’s consumer magazine stable for a reported $350 million. Meredith, which publishes Successful Farming, passed on G+J books Inc. and Fast Company, paving the way for a $35 million sale of those properties to Mansueto Ventures.

Jeffrey Klein
What: President
Where: 101communications
Why: Recognizing the diminishing role of ad pages, Klein has aggressively pursued alternative revenue streams in online special reports and membership organizations such as the Data Warehousing Institute and IT Compliance Institute.

Robert Krakoff
What: CEO
Where: Blantyre Partners
What: The former chairman-CEO of Advanstar partnered with Blackstone Group, an investment firm, to form Blantyre Partners. Together, they are looking for a media company to acquire and are considered to be the front-runner for Advanstar Communications.

William P. Kupper Jr.
What: President-
BusinessWeek Group
Where: McGraw-Hill Cos.
Why: After overseeing the launch of BusinessWeek Small Biz and the online Small Biz Channel, Kupper is encouraging his marketing crew to be “platform agnostic” and pushing to synchronize and integrate on a global scale the brand’s print, online and digital products.

Jeff Lapin
What: President
Where: Farm Progress Corp.
Why: Lapin helped to create a fresh strategy for Farm Progress Cos., including a new format and unique design for all 18 of the company’s publications, as well as the resurrection of Farm Futures magazine.

Michael J. Lavery
What: President-managing director
What: Audit Bureau of Circulations
Why: Lavery has had to deal with much turbulence in recent years, including increased competition from BPA Worldwide and auditing scandals involving consumer titles. Still, Lavery is confident that steps taken by the ABC will bolster its position in the auditing business.

Joseph Loggia
What: CEO
Where: Advanstar Communications
Why: Loggia made a bold move earlier this year in selling part of Advanstar, including its travel group, to Questex Media Group. The deal signaled a new strategy for Advanstar or the first steps in an exit strategy for the company’s private equity owner, DLJ Merchant Banking Partners III, a fund managed by Credit Suisse First Boston Private Equity.

Paul Mackler
What: Chairman-CEO
Where: Cygnus
Business Media
Why: Mackler has taken a slow and steady approach to building Cygnus. This year, the company added EMS Expo and EMS, Advanced Rescue Technology and Frontline First Responder to its portfolio. The company is deeply entrenched in several market sectors that have been strong in recent years.

Doug Manoni
What: CEO
Where: Wicks Business Information
Why: Following the sale earlier this year of Alternative Investor to Dow Jones & Co. for $85 million, Manoni is focusing on making small investments in the core markets Wicks continues to serve: financial, general business and technology.

Joe Mansueto
What: Owner
Where: Mansueto Ventures
Why: The chairman-CEO of Morningstar Inc. made a splashy entry into business publishing earlier this year with his $35 million acquisition of Inc. and Fast Company from Gruner+Jahr USA. In the case of Fast Company, he saved the magazine from what appeared to be certain death.

Michael Marchesano
What: President-CEO
Where: VNU Business Media
Why: Marchesano may soon find himself in a tight spot, with rumors floating around that VNU might sell off its b-to-b publishing assets to focus more on its market research and media measurement portfolios. Analysts say the unit could fetch $1.2 billion at auction.

Scott C. Marden
What: President-
information and media services
Where: McGraw-Hill Cos.
Why: Marden has his hands full following McGraw-Hill’s April acquisition of J.D. Power & Associates for an estimated price of $350 million to $400 million. The deal gives Marden the opportunity to sell marketing information to businesses served by BusinessWeek, as well as McGraw-Hill’s construction, aviation, energy and health care publishing and information units.

Patrick McGovern
What: Chairman
Where: IDG
Why: When he started his company back in 1964, McGovern correctly predicted that the world would grow increasingly computerized. He also saw from early on that business, including publishing, is a global endeavor. IDG launched its first foreign publication in Japan in 1972.

Harold “Terry” McGraw
What: Chairman-president-CEO
Where: McGraw- Hill Cos.
Why: McGraw, who oversees some of the best brands in the business, continues to try and crack new markets for McGraw-Hill’s various portfolios. For example, the company’s flagship BusinessWeek has just 7,000 subscribers to its pan-Asian edition, and McGraw has said he would like to produce a local edition in India.

Richard Mead
What: Managing director
Where: Jordan, Edmiston Group
Why: With his financial background, Mead has helped Jordan, Edmiston become one of the most sought-after investment banks in the b-to-b media sector. The deals the firm helped facilitate this year include the sale of PointRoll to Gannett Co. and the sale of Credit Union Times to Wicks Business Media.

Alan Meckler
What: Chairman-CEO
Where: JupiterMedia Corp.
Why: JupiterMedia’s sale last summer of its Search Engine Strategies trade shows, SearchEngineWatch.com Web site and ClickZ.com network of Web sites was viewed as the first step in a wide-scale divestiture of the company’s online properties. Meckler is now focused on growing the company’s stock image business.

Bruce Morris
What: President-banking/corporate groups
Where: Source Media
Why: The portfolio Morris oversees at the former Thomson Media has grown considerably this year, with the launch of Financial IT Security, BI Review, SMB Finance and a print version of online publication ISO & Agent.

Martin Nisenholtz
What: Senior VP-digital operations
Where: New York Times Co.
Why: Nisenholtz has been instrumental in the plans announced last summer to fully integrate the newsrooms of The New York Times and NYTimes.com. He also raised eyebrows with a speech in which he compared current online news sites to the videogame Pong from the 1970s.

Joel Novak
What: Managing director
Where: Berkery, Noyes & Co.
Why: Along with fellow Managing Director Kathleen Thomas, Novak was hired by Berkery, Noyes to help strengthen the firm’s b-to-b media presence. The company recently represented Adams Business Media in the sale of its futures and research groups to Highline Media and represented Boucher Communications in its sale to Wolters Kluwer Health.

David Nussbaum
What: CEO
Where: Penton Media
Why: Nussbaum has been getting high marks since taking the helm of the troubled media company in the summer of 2004. Penton has made a series of recent acquisitions, including the Kosher World Conference & Expo, and is considering launching two large trade shows in the next 12 to 24 months.

William J. O’Neil
What: Chairman
Where: Investor’s Business Daily
Why: In an ongoing evolution of the print product, O’Neill has taken pains to enhance Internet and technology coverage as well as provide more focused b-to-b features, including “Managing for Success,” “Health and Medicine” and other areas targeting C-level executives.

William M. Passano
What: President, medical-dental division
Where: Ascend Media
Why: Passano was hired away from SCP Communications earlier this year to run Ascend Media’s $40 million health care publishing business. This consists mainly of the Medical World properties that Ascend acquired late last year.

Jeff Patterson
What: Exec VP-corporate sales and marketing
Where: CMP Media
Why: Patterson will be taking the lead on CMP’s new Lead Nurture program. The program features a “gated briefing center” designed to enable enterprise technology buyers to view content tailored to their stage in the purchase process.

Donald Pazour
What: CEO
Where: Access Intelligence
Why: After owner Veronis Suhler Stevenson merged Access Intelligence (formerly PBI Media) with its Chemical Week properties earlier this year, Pazour may finally be ready to go to work on the acquisition front. That is, if a sale of Access Intelligence by VSS doesn’t beat him to it.

Reed Phillips
What: Managing partner
Where: DeSilva & Phillips
Why: Along with Roland DeSilva, Phillips founded DeSilva & Phillips in 1996. In addition to participating in M&A transactions, the firm has recently moved into setting up financing for deals, including Lebhar-Friedman’s acquisition of Dowden Health Media.

Christopher J. Poleway
What: President
Where: Time Inc.’s Fortune/Money Group
Why: Poleway will likely be carrying the ball during the merging of financial sites Business2.com, CNNMoney.com, Fortune.com and FSB.com into a single Web site. The new site, at CNNMoney.com, is slated to be launched in January and will draw on content from Business 2.0, Fortune, Fortune Small Business and Money.

William L. Pollak
What: President-CEO
Where: ALM
Why: With the increasing “professionalization” of law firms, Pollak and crew have more opportunity to create new ad platforms, particularly online. Indeed, the company changed its name from American Lawyer Media in January to reflect the fact that its product offerings have grown beyond newspapers and magazines to include the Internet, events and market research.

Frank Quigley
What: President-securities group
Where: Source Media
Why: A former Ziff Davis and Government Computer News executive, Quigley heads the securities group at Source Media, formerly known as Thomson Media before its $350 million sale to Investcorp. He oversees The Bond Buyer, Securities Industry News and other publications.

Mike Reilly
What: CEO
Where: Randall-Reilly Publishing
Why: Reilly has a new business partner, Wachovia Capital Partners, and a new company, after he shepherded the purchase earlier this month of Randall Publishing. Reilly remains CEO of the b-to-b media company, which publishes several trucking and construction magazines.

Hugh Roome
What: President
Where: Scholastic International
Why: Roome took the helm as chairman of American Business Media in July. A major goal of his is to move forward with ABM’s three-year strategic plan, which focuses on, among other things, governmental affairs and professional development.

Paul Rossi
What: Publisher
Where: The Economist-North America
Why: Rossi has helped establish The Economist as a strong alternative to the big three business books—BusinessWeek, Forbes and Fortune . He has also been a leader in insisting that Economist.com charge for content online.

Dick Ryan
What: CEO
Where: Zweig White Information Services
Why: Ryan’s company is shooting for a bigger share of the ad dollars in the construction-building markets that are dominated by Hanley Wood. Zweig’s stable of publications includes Bridges, CE News, CraneWorks and Lift Applications & Equipment.

Gerald C. Ryerson
What: President
Where: Edgell Communications
Why: Edgell’s revenue has nearly tripled since Ryerson came onboard in late 1996 (he was named president in January 1999). Ryerson has been a big proponent of niche Web seminars.

Christopher Schulz
What: Executive director
Where: Western Publications Association
Why: Schulz will be spearheading several events in 2006 to showcase the interests of magazine publishers west of the Mississippi. These events will include the fourth annual Publishing Conference and the annual Maggie Awards, which recognize editorial excellence in more than 90 categories.

Eric Shanfelt
What: VP-emedia strategy
Where: Penton Media
Why: Shanfelt made his name at Penton by helping build the online offerings at the company’s Windows & .Net magazine. When David Nussbaum took over as CEO of Penton in 2004, one of his first acts was to name Shanfelt to oversee all Penton’s Internet efforts.

Tad Smith
What: Exec VP
Where: Reed Business Information
Why: Smith, who was named exec VP earlier this year, will be working to shift more content to Reed’s online properties. He is also CEO of Reed Construction Data and president of Reed‘s Media Division.

Jim Spanfeller
What: CEO
Where: Forbes.com
Why: Spanfeller, a former top publishing executive with Playboy and Ziff Davis Media, has been one of the leading evangelists for b-to-b advertising online. In June, Forbes.com launched a vertical search engine, powered by IT.com, that is dedicated to enterprise IT products and services.

Jeffrey Stevenson
What: Managing partner, co-CEO
Where: Veronis Suhler Stevenson
Why: Stevenson led the firm in its transformation from media investment bank to private equity investment powerhouse. VSS’ sales this year of two of its portfolio companies—Hanley Wood and Canon Communications—have continued the firm’s stellar returns for its investors.

Stephen Stoneburn
What: CEO
Where: Quadrant HealthCom
Why: Stoneburn presides over one of the largest medical publishing companies in the U.S. Among its titles are The Female Patient, The American Journal of Orthopedics and Federal Practitioner.

Greg Strakosch
What: CEO
Where: TechTarget
Why: Under Strakosch’s leadership, TechTarget has been on an expansion tear. It acquired Bitpipe late last year and in April of this year debuted CIO Decisions. The company also rolled out TechTarget LeadPRISM, a lead management service for IT marketers.

David Straus
What: Partner
Where: Thompson Coburn
Why: Straus acts as postal counsel for American Business Media. A main focus of his efforts is to keep postal prices reasonable for magazines. Additionally, he provides advice to ABM members on privacy, piracy, tax and human resource issues.

Arthur Sulzberger Jr.
What: Chairman
Where: The New York Times Co.
Why: Despite a rough couple of years for the editorial side, The New York Times remains one of the top media vehicles for b-to-b advertisers. Sulzberger has made no secret of his passion for monetizing the Web, as New York Times Co. paid $410 million earlier this year to acquire About.com.

William C. Vance
What: Chairman-CEO
Where: Vance Publishing
Why: This has been a busy year for Vance’s company on the M&A front. It sold four crop publications—Cotton Farming, Peanut Grower, Rice Farming and Soybean South—and acquired Doane Agricultural Services as well as agricultural information properties of C&P Press.

Peggy Walker
What: President-COO
Where: Vance Publishing
Why: Walker joined Vance last year in the new role of VP-custom media and was promoted to president-COO in April. One of her main goals is to diversify the company’s portfolio by expanding its Web offerings, live events and research business.

Bruce Wasserstein
What: Chairman Where: Wasserstein & Co.
Why: Wasserstein, a longtime financial player on Wall Street, put himself on the media map in early 2004 when his firm acquired New York Magazine from Primedia for $55 million. The company has since moved into b-to-b publishing, acquiring Primedia’s business information unit in a $385 million deal earlier this year.

James Watt
What: CEO
Where: Watt Publishing
Why: To offset the threat posed by search engines such as Google and Yahoo!, Watt’s company has developed its own industry-specific search engines. It’s an approach that’s likely to be duplicated by other b-to-b publishers as vertical search becomes the next online frontier.

Steve Weitzner
What: CEO
Where: CMP Media
Why: Weitzner, who has been with CMP since 1984, took over as CEO in late September after former CEO Gary Marshall abruptly left the technology publishing giant. Owner United Business Media is looking for Weitzner to put CMP on a strong growth track.

Guy Wendler
What: CEO
Where: Stamats Business Media
Why: Wendler has for years been one of the most vocal advocates for smaller b-to-b publishers. His company recently acquired EnvironDesign Journal, Green Guide to NeoCon and Interiors & Sources, along with the EnvironDesign Conference and Web site.

Susan Whiting
What: Exec VP-media and measurement group
Where: VNU
Why: Whiting, formerly president-CEO of Nielsen Media Research, has taken on one of the white-hot areas of marketing communications—measurement, which is fast becoming the Holy Grail for business publishers.

Kevin Worth
What: President-CEO
Where: The Deal LLC
Why: While at American Lawyer Media, Worth was a key executive in the launch of The Daily Deal in March 1999. Although Wall Street was skeptical about The Deal after its launch—just as the M&A markets started to tank—the business survived the lean years to build a diversified portfolio.

Royce Yudkoff
What: President
Where: ABRY Partners
Why: The “RY” in ABRY, Yudkoff is the non-executive chairman of Penton Media, where he was influential in replacing former chairman-CEO Thomas Kemp with David Nussbaum. ABRY Partners’ other large investment in b-to-b media is Cygnus Business Media.

Efrem “Skip” Zimbalist III
What: CEO
Where: Active Interest Media
Why: Zimbalist is just about midway through a six-year plan to build a vertical magazine empire. AIM publishes several magazines and books, and produces videos and events. Zimbalist’s goal is to launch at least 30 publications in the next few years.